The Prime Minister of Bangladesh insisted her re-election was legitimate last
night, raising the stakes in a bloody showdown with opposition groups after
a disputed poll that was the most violent in the impoverished nation’s
troubled 42-year history.

Speaking as fresh trouble hit the capital Dhaka, leaving several dead as armed
troops patrolled the streets, Sheikh Hasina insisted that a boycott of
Sunday’s poll by the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) “should not mean there is a question of legitimacy” over the result.

“People participated in the poll and other parties participated,” said Sheikh
Hasina, the leader of